


Never Doubted it for a Minute

by JoMouse



Series: Sterek Bingo 2020 [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Human, Bakery Shop Owner Derek Hale, Bakery Shop Owner Stiles Stilinski, Don't copy to another site, Evil Kate Argent, M/M, Past Derek Hale/Paige, Stalker Kate Argent, Sterek Bingo, Sterek Bingo 2020, Warning: Kate Argent, not as dark as it sounds, sbbaking, sbneighbors, sbrivals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24479194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Ever since high school, Stiles has tried to be the best at everything, or at least better than Derek Hale. Now, their bakeries are right next to each other.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Sterek Bingo 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737445
Comments: 24
Kudos: 195





	Never Doubted it for a Minute

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and salutations!
> 
> Last day of May and here is a story I've been working on for months in preparation for Sterek Bingo. It didn't turn out exactly as I'd planned but I'm pretty happy with it; I hope you are, too.
> 
> Big, huge, massive thanks to my beta [Marie](HTTP://quietzap.tumblr.com) for the last-minute beta (I literally wrote the last 5K of this yesterday).
> 
> Hope everyone is safe out there.
> 
> xx-Joey
> 
> Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.

Sunlight shimmered through the windows along the front of Sweet Magic Bakery, the shop opened by his mother and then taken over by his father when she passed away until Stiles was old enough to step in and take the reins. He wiped down the counter before heading to the front door, flipping the sign and opening the door. He grinned at Mrs. Ito, the elderly Japanese woman who was always waiting for him in the morning, holding the door open and pressing a kiss to her cheek as she walked past. He looked out over Main Street, Beacon Hills and waved at the man who ran the hardware store across the street who was sweeping the sidewalk looking like a throwback to the good old days as he tipped his baseball cap at Stiles.

Breathing deeply, Stiles turned back towards his shop, catching sight of the owner of the shop next store. Derek Hale turned from where he was wiping down the window of Savory Goods Bakery. The shop had opened the year before and was quite popular with the residents in town, although whoever on the city board thought approving a second bakery in the same town, let alone right next door, was a good idea just blew Stiles’ mind.

It wouldn’t be so bad if their businesses were simply competitors, but Derek was competitive in everything. He’d been that way since they were in high school together. Despite being a few years apart, they’d shared a few classes because Stiles took advanced math and sciences classes after showing signs of boredom in the regular level courses. They’d never really spoken, but they both worked hard to be the top of the classes and managed to evenly split the titles.

The rivalry was more or less good natured and a small part of Stiles wondered if Derek opening a bakery right next door to him was just an extension of that rivalry. Despite both of them running bakeries, they sold different wares. Everything inside Stiles’ Sweet Magic Bakery was just as the name described, sweet; he sold cupcakes and brownies and cookies and pies. Derek’s shop Savory Goods sold hearty breads and rolls and biscuits; things that made up a meal. It really wasn’t unusual for someone to go from one shop to another to get things for the same meal.

And yet, the rivalry remained and if they were friends, he’d call it friendly but they were still barely acquaintances despite years of knowing each other. Hell, in the fifteen years since the first day of sophomore year, they’d probably exchanged less than fifteen words. Most days it was simply entertaining and others it was just frustrating because normally no one could deny the allure of Stiles’ outgoing personality. Stiles shook his head as he flashed a smile at Derek who turned away with a scowl on his face and went inside his bakery. 

The rivalry had gone on long enough that the town was taking bets on how long it would take for them to either kill each other or drive each other out of business. Stiles’ own father was in on the betting pool but refused to tell Stiles where his wager laid in fear of “tampering” with the bet. He probably had his money on Derek killing Stiles and didn’t want to tell him for fear of being viewed as anything but a loving father.

That man was lucky Stiles loved him as much as he did or he’d have put him in a home years ago, Sheriff of Beacon Hills or not, Stiles knew his way around the system.

Stiles was heading back into his shop when he saw Lydia Martin making her way towards him, a stack of flyers in her arms, a determined look on her perfectly made up face. “Morning, Lydia,” he called out. “How’s it shakin’?”

She rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitched as she took a flyer off the top of the stack and handed it over to him. “You will be signing up,” she said and his eyes flicked down to scan the flyer. “Baking competition?”

“It’s a new event for Beacon Hills Happy Days,” she explained. “I expect every food establishment to contribute something and I know you won’t let me down.”

He nodded his head until she walked away when it changed directions into a fond shake. He’d known Lydia for as long as he could remember and had been in love with her all through high school until he realized he was gay and that his love was more adoration than anything else. His eagerness to please her never went away though and he was already going over what he could make for the competition to wow her.

He shouldn’t have been surprised when her next stop was Savory Goods but he stumbled a step when he saw her reach for the door. He watched her until she’d disappeared and then went inside his own shop and headed to his office to begin researching recipes for the greatest dessert ever experienced so he could improve upon it and enter it into the competition. He was already thinking of doing a pina colada cake with toasted coconut or a caramel apple pie, those were always popular. Whatever he decided on, it would have to be spectacular to beat whatever Derek created.

Stiles stayed later than normal at the bakery decorating a couple of cakes to be delivered in the morning. He waved to the Mosses, the elderly couple that baked overnight for him; they’d worked for him since he’d opened and he knew they were in capable hands. As he locked up behind himself, he heard muffled arguing from next door. 

Curiosity was always his greatest weakness and he made his way to stand just behind one of the potted plants that stood between his shop and Derek’s and peered around. It was hard to see through the window because the main lights were out, but he could make out two figures backlit by the open doorway to the back of the shop. Squinting, he identified one figure as Derek and the other was definitely a woman, but he wasn’t sure who it was. 

He couldn’t make out their words until Derek practically roared, “Get out!” Stepping backwards in shock; as grumpy as Derek was he wasn’t normally angry. He noticed the woman drawing closer to the front door and he hid behind the plant in the shadows created by his awning. 

“You’re going to regret this, Derek!” the woman shouted as she stormed down the street and right past Stiles’ hiding place. 

He recognized her immediately. Kate Argent, his friend Allison’s aunt who always struck him as very inappropriate. She worked for her family’s weapons business and was pretty frightening. She’d also been a substitute when they were in high school. What was she arguing with Derek about? How did they even know each other?

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Derek stopped in front of him. “Spying on me?” he snarled.

“No,” Stiles responded, trying for his usual sarcasm but unable to bring it out when he saw the pale look on his face. “Are you alright? Do I need to call my dad?”

Derek swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bouncing and Stiles tore his eyes away from it to look at his face. He spotted fear before his entire expression shut down and he frowned. “No. I’m good,” he said, sharply and turned away. He made it a couple of steps before turning back, his expression slightly softer. “Thanks, though.”

“Anytime, dude,” Stiles told him, smirking when Derek mumbled, “Don’t call me ‘dude’” before disappearing around the corner toward the lot where Stiles knew the stairway to his apartment above the shop was located.

Over the next few days, Derek avoided Stiles even more than normal. It was beginning to be funny the way he ducked into the shop or around corners and even once, Stiles saw him duck down behind a car as he was going for a late evening run. It got to the point that Stiles wanted to confront him because whatever had happened had clearly shook him up enough to act like he was a teenager again. 

If he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his caramel apple pie for the competition, he would probably have said something but he was spending extra hours at the shop baking pie after pie until he couldn’t tell one recipe from the next. It came to a head one night when Elena Moss literally chased him out of the shop with a broom. Stiles was still laughing as Elena locked the door behind him. He wiggled the keys at her and she rolled her eyes and waved the broom at him through the glass.

He was still laughing when he noticed that the light was still on inside Derek’s shop. He cupped his hands around his eyes and peeked into the glass of the door, spotting Derek at one of the tables, laptop open in front of him. Thick-rimmed glasses sat on his face and he ran a hand through his hair. Before he could stop himself, Stiles gave the door a nudge, surprised when it opened and he nearly fell inside.

“We’re closed,” Derek said without looking up.

“Door was unlocked.”

“Open sign is off and hours are clearly posted,” Derek countered, taking off his glasses and rubbing at his eyes, blinking in surprise when he spotted Stiles. “What do you want?”

Stiles opened and shut his mouth a couple of times, nothing coming to mind when his stomach decided to let out a growl and he tried to remember the last thing he’d eaten other than pie samples. “Nothing. Sorry to bother you,” he managed to say as he stepped toward the door. 

He was halfway out when Derek spoke up behind him. “Look, I have a bunch of food in the back. If you’re hungry, come have some.”

“Not a good sales day?” Stiles asked, regretting the words as soon as he said them for sounding snarky when he was just curious why he would have so much food.

“I was trying different things for the competition. I’d hate for it to go to waste, so if you’re hungry, you’d be doing me a favor.”

“Yeah, alright,” he said, smiling when Derek reached past him to lock the door and then led him back to the kitchen. His eyes widened when he saw the counters laden down with breads of all different descriptions. The smells were overwhelming and his stomach growled again. “You are going to be rolling me out of here.”

Derek laughed and gestured to the first dish describing it as a pull apart Taco bread which was next to a taco stuffed bread. Stiles took small pieces of each one already planning to go back for the pull apart bread. He followed Derek around the kitchen trying to keep up with everything Derek was telling him. When they were back to the first, he handed Stiles a plate. 

“Do you want something to drink? I’ve got water, soda, beer…”

“You have a liquor license?” Stiles asked, loading up his plate and watching Derek do the same.

“It’s not for sale, it’s just mine. I spend a lot of nights here baking and I’m too lazy to go upstairs,” he explains. “That was the plan for tonight, actually.”

“Beer sounds great,” Stiles says as he follows him out to the main part of the shop to a table. He takes the beer that Derek offers him before settling down. “You should hire someone. The Mosses work for me and it’s been amazing being able to go home and go to sleep.”

“I was working on an ad for more help when you came in,” Derek admitted, taking a bite of the cheesy spinach artichoke bread. “You know, I think this is the longest conversation we’ve ever had.”

Stiles ducked his head and picked up a jalapeno popper stuffed dinner roll, moaning as the flavors exploded in his mouth. “Long standing rivalry will do that to you,” he said, blushing when Derek raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I guess it will,” he responded after a long silence, shoving a piece of pesto chicken pizza roll into his mouth.

They grinned at each other around mouthfuls of food, talking between bites about nothing important until their plates were empty. Stiles gave his top three favorites and Derek packed up a little bit of everything for Stiles to take home. “You are so coming over to the shop tomorrow after close and I’m returning the favor,” he said, holding up the box as Derek let him out the front door.

“Deal,” Derek responded and Stiles punched him in the shoulder before he headed down to his car, pausing at the corner when he thought he spotted someone lurking in the shadows across the street. Shaking it off as an overindulgence induced hallucination, he climbed into his Jeep to head back to his house in town.

Stiles overslept the next morning but he didn’t panic because he knew that things were in good hands with Liam and Mason, the college students he’d hired would have things well in hand until he got there. There were days he missed running the entire shop himself but then he’d have a lazy morning like that day and he stopped missing the days of no sleep and very little food that didn’t contain mass amounts of sugar.

He packed up some of the leftovers from Derek the night before into plastic containers and stacked them into a backpack. Hefting it onto his shoulders, he let himself out and jogged over to his dad’s. His cruiser was in the driveway so Stiles called out as he let himself into the house. His dad came out of the kitchen with a mug of coffee and a smile on his face. “Son, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”

Stiles took his backpack off and pulled out the containers, handing them over. “I got these from Savory Goods last night and thought you might like to try them. Some of them aren’t exactly on your diet, but the portions are small.”

“You spent money at Hale’s shop?” his father asked, but reached for a couple of containers before going back into the kitchen. He set his mug down on the counter and started peeking inside, grinning when he picked out one of the pieces of spinach artichoke bread, eating it cold. “Damn, the boy can bake.”

“Hey!” Stiles said, laughing; it was no secret that his father sometimes patronized Derek’s shop, even if he tried to keep it a secret from him. “And I didn’t spend a penny. I ran into Derek as I was heading home and he offered to feed me.”

“Interesting,” his father said, putting the containers into the fridge and pouring a second mug of coffee, offering it to Stiles as he settled into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. 

Stiles sat across from him. “Stop being a cop.” His father smirked around the lip of his mug. “You know what I mean.”

“The two of you have managed to pull each other’s pigtails since high school,” he commented.

“We’d barely said two words to each other before last night!” Stiles argued and his father chuckled.

“And yet, he gets under your skin like no one else.”

“Pfft,” Stiles said. “I just stopped by to feed you. I’ll get back to my run now.”

“Or you could tell me what’s really on your mind,” his father said, setting his mug down and fixing him with a serious gaze and Stiles dropped back into the chair.

“It’s probably nothing, but I saw Derek and Kate Argent arguing the other night,” Stiles said, not sure why he was even telling his father but he’d been unable to get it out of his mind since it had happened.

“She’s back in town?” Stiles nodded and his father frowned. “And bothering Hale?” Another nod and as he was about to say something else, his father continued. “You’re right that it’s probably nothing, but I’ll look into it.”

“Thanks,” Stiles said, standing again and heading towards the door. “I’ll see you at dinner Sunday. Do you want me to bring anything?”

“Some of those raspberry coconut bars wouldn’t be unwelcome.” His father stood as well, pulling him into a hug and then returning to his paper as Stiles let himself out of the house and began jogging towards home.

The shop was busy when he arrived so he washed his hands and hopped behind the counter to run the register while Liam and Mason hurriedly filled orders. While he was talking, he noticed Derek walk by the window, looking inside. He smiled when their eyes met and Stiles raised his hand in a wave which he returned. The customer in front of him made a considering sound as she glanced between the window and Stiles.

“Now, Ms. Pearl, I hope you aren’t going to go making something out of nothing,” he warned playfully, wiggling a finger at the older woman who giggled like a schoolgirl.

“Now, Stiles, you know I’m not one to gossip,” she said and Stiles waited for it, “but did you hear about…”

“Ms. Pearl, here’s your order,” Liam interrupted, earning a grin from Stiles as the woman was suitably distracted and went on her way. She stopped just inside the doorway to talk with Mrs. Kravitz from the library and Stiles let out a sigh as he saw them both turn and look at him. 

Shaking his head, he returned to the customers and once the line was under control he headed into the back of the shop and started decorating three dozen cupcakes due to be picked up at five for a retirement party. He was about halfway through the second dozen when there was a knock on the back door to the kitchen. Frowning, he took off his plastic gloves and threw them away and made his way to the door.

“Hello?” he called through the intercom.

“It’s Derek. Can I come in?” came back in a rushed whisper and Stiles felt cold go down his spine as he hurriedly pulled the door open. Derek ducked in and Stiles closed the door quietly but firmly. “Thank you.”

Stiles started to ask but something about the hunch of Derek’s shoulders and the way his eyes were darting around kept him quiet. “Are you any good at cake decorating?” he asked instead.

Derek shrugged and looked over at the cupcakes spread out on the table. They were pretty simple cupcakes made to look like beach scenes. He was piping blue and white frosting on one half and tan on the other, adding crushed graham crackers to the tan frosting. Once the frosting was done, he stuck a paper cocktail umbrella into the “sand”. Half of the candies had small squares of Airheads Sour candy towels and the other half had little red and white peppermint beach balls.

“There’s a reason I don’t make cakes and cupcakes,” Derek said, leaning close to study one of the finished pieces.

“Alright, then I’ll do the icing. Can you handle umbrella, towel and beach ball duty?” Stiles teased, laughing when Derek rolled his eyes at him, already reaching for a pair of plastic gloves.

They worked in silence for several minutes. Stiles would glance over to check on Derek’s progress as he finished icing each cupcake. He was amazed at how carefully he was arranging the decorations despite how tiny they all were in Derek’s hands. He could feel his lips quirking as Derek’s tongue poked out between his teeth as he adjusted an umbrella.

Derek caught him staring and furrowed his brows at him, lips in a frown and Stiles could feel his own temper starting to rise when Derek looked at the cupcake and back at Stiles. “Did I do it wrong?” he asked, his voice quiet and unsure and Stiles swallowed hard to get past the sudden tightness in his throat.

“No, it’s perfect,” Stiles assured him before focusing on the next cupcake. “Remind me to show you photos of some of my earliest cupcakes sometime. I could’ve been a contender on  _ Nailed It! _ ”

Derek chuckled. “I love that show. Did you see the Marvel themed one?”

“Dude, I’ve seen them all,” Stiles said, passing another cupcake.

“Don’t call me ‘dude’,” Derek snapped, shaking his head as he carefully laid out a beach towel. “What are these for anyway?”

“Coach Finstock’s retirement party.”

“Crazy Coach Finstock is retiring? Isn’t he a little young?” Derek asked, standing to stretch as he waited for Stiles to finish more cupcakes.

“I heard he won the lottery or something. Personally, I think he just finally got tired of giving the  _ Independence Day  _ speech.” Derek made a sound like a choked off laugh. “I have soda and water in the mini fridge in the office if you want something to drink. No beer though.”

“You want anything?” Derek asked as he headed into the office.

“I’m good,” Stiles called out, putting down the piping bag and standing up off the stool he’d been sitting on to stretch. He bent over to touch his toes, wiggling his hips a bit as he did and jerking upright when he heard a choking sound followed by a few drops of water hitting the backs of his arms. 

Whirling around, he found Derek with a hand over his mouth, eyes wide above it and tips of his ears burning red. Stiles burst out laughing. “Your ears are pink!”

“Fuck off,” Derek muttered, coughing and rubbing his hand over his mouth before moving them to try and cover his ears from Stiles’ view and spilling water on himself from the open bottle in his hand.

Stiles bit back laughter as he grabbed a towel and tossed it at Derek. “Dry off. I might have an extra shirt if you don’t mind advertising for the bakery.”

Derek glowered as he patted at his chest with the towel. “I live upstairs.” He glanced towards the back door, frowning. 

“Is there a reason you’re hiding here?”

“I’m not hiding,” he objected a little too quickly to be truthful and huffed out a breath.

Stiles studied him and thought back to the night with Kate Argent and the argument. “Alright, you’re not hiding, but do you want me to go next door and get your shirt? Or send one of my guys?”

Derek looked at the door again before shaking his head. “No, I should be going. Thanks for...the water.” 

“Thank you for the help with the cupcakes,” Stiles told him. “Feel free to not hide here anytime.”

Derek shook his head and opened the back door, peeking outside before stepping out and letting it close behind him without another word. Stiles shook his head as he returned to the cupcakes wondering what had just happened and if it would happen again anytime soon.

Stiles moved around the Mosses as he pulled two more versions of Caramel Apple Pie out of the oven and set them on the counter to cool. He frowned down at both of them; they smelled amazing but he couldn’t get the top to look quite right and he wasn’t sure how they tasted yet. Elena leaned over his shoulder with an audible sniff.

“Back off. They need to set,” he said to her, laughing when she pouted and returned to the cinnamon roll dough she was rolling out on the large table in the center of the room. Her husband was filling donuts with custard and singing along to a song only he could hear. 

“Now, don’t forget that our vacation starts tomorrow,” Elena told him. “You sure you’re going to be alright without us?”

Stiles laughed. “I’ll be fine. It’ll be good to get back into overnight baking and Liam and Mason both agreed to work some extra shifts so the mornings are covered. My dad is even going to try to pick up a couple of the evening shifts when he’s off from the station.” He snapped a couple of pictures of the pies and sent them off to Lydia for her opinion. “We’ve got everything covered. You just enjoy your vacation.” 

He envied the couple; they had been married for forty years and had never had a honeymoon and the next day they were leaving for a two month tour of Europe. He would miss them, not only because they helped around the shop but because he genuinely liked them both. He hoped to be in a relationship like theirs one day, but at the rate his love life was going, he was pretty sure he’d be forever alone.

He had his bakery and his friends which was usually enough but every once in a while he felt his singledom a bit too acutely, usually when those he cared about were being extra happy in love. He smiled at Elena when she pressed a kiss to Arthur’s cheek and she caught him looking and gave him her own sad smile in return.

“You will find someone,” she told him and he waved a hand in her direction. “When you least expect it, the person you least expect,” she continued and he ducked his head to focus on the quiet tapping coming from the back door.

“Hello?” he called through the intercom.

“I’m here to have a favor returned,” Derek answered and Stiles grinned as he pulled open the door, having figured after his visit earlier he wouldn’t be returning that night.

“You’re just in time to taste test,” he said, gesturing to the pies on the counter.

Derek gave him a soft smile and then froze when he spotted Elena staring at him from where she was carefully rolling the dough. “Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” Elena parrotted and gave Stiles a wide-eyed look when Derek hurried over to the pies.

“Why don’t we take these out to one of the tables,” Stiles suggested. Derek grabbed the potholders and picked up both pies and hurried through the door to the main part of the shop. “Not a word,” Stiles said, pointing at Elena who had opened her mouth as soon as the door had swung shut. 

Her smile turned wry as she mimed zipping her lips and returned her focus to the dough in front of her. Stiles shook his head as he followed Derek out, grabbing a couple of forks, a couple of glasses and some milk from the fridge under the counter. He settled across from Derek and handed him a fork.

“No plates?”

“You got cooties?” Stiles asked, sticking a fork into the pie he’d layered with a single sheet of caramel, frowning when it didn’t split as evenly as he had hoped, instead cracking and making a mess of what already hadn’t looked too appealing.

“Not since I got cootie-sprayed in first grade,” Derek teased back, sticking his fork into the other pie, breaking easily through the lattice work and picking up a forkful of apple and cinnamon with just a touch of caramel oozing out of the filling.

“Funny,” Stiles responded, putting down his fork and watching intently as Derek wrapped his lips around the morsel. His eyes closed on a quiet moan. “Good?”

Derek’s eyes flew open and the tips of his ears turned pink like they had earlier and Stiles bit back a teasing comment. “Is that caramel?”

“It is. These are both caramel apple pies, but I wasn’t sure how to incorporate the caramel. I think that one,” he pointed to the one Derek had taken a bite of, “has the better delivery method. It definitely looks better, too.”

Derek studied both pies and then took a bite of the other one, frowning before taking a second bite. “Both are good, but you’re right. That one doesn’t have the caramel in every bite.” He pulled the first one closer to himself, wrapping an arm protectively around it when Stiles moved his fork towards it. “Sorry, all mine.”

“I need to at least taste it if I’m going to enter it in the competition!” Stiles said, trying to get the pie again and only managing to jab Derek with the fork a couple of times.

“You’ll just have to trust me.”

Stiles' hand froze just before the fork jabbed him again. “What? Trust  _ you _ ?” His mind went back to high school and all of the times his grades were called into question, something he suspected Derek had a hand in even if he couldn’t prove it. Although, honestly, Derek’s grades seemed to be put under the same scrutiny, so maybe it hadn’t been Derek’s doing.

Derek looked up, setting his fork down and sliding the pie back towards Stiles before pushing to stand. “You’re right. You don’t trust me. I don’t trust you.” He started towards the door when Stiles’ reached out a hand to stop him. He stopped but didn’t turn back to face him.

Stiles knew a couple of days of sharing food didn’t make a friendship, especially after a rivalry that had started in high school and continued without him even quite understanding why outside of it being comfortable after all of this time. “When we were in high school, did you tell the teachers I cheated?” If there was ever a time for being straight forward, it was right then. 

Derek whirled around. “What? No. That was you.” Stiles shook his head. “It wasn’t you?”

“No. It wasn’t you?” Stiles asked, narrowing his eyes in confusion. “Harris…”

“Harris,” Derek repeated, a bit firmer and they both nodded. “That asshole hated me from Freshman year.”

“And the first day of class, I was going to ask you to be lab partners-”

“And he stopped us. Two days later, he accused me of cheating,” Derek said. Stiles pointed to his own chest, remembering that first time and the way that Harris had insinuated one of the older students in the class had seen him with a cheat sheet during the pop quiz.

They both started cursing under their breath until they started laughing. “So, we’ve barely spoken for fifteen years because Harris is a controlling dick,” Stiles said.

“Probably afraid our combined efforts would take over the classroom,” Derek agreed. “Thank god he retired. I would hate for any kids I had to have to experience him.”

“You want kids?” Stiles asked.

“That’s what you got from that?” Derek teased. “Yeah, one day. I mean, adoption for gay parents is getting more acceptable every day.”

“You’re gay? What about Paige?” Stiles flinched when he remembered the girl he was asking about was no longer alive, killed and left for dead at their high school Derek’s senior year, her murderer never found.

Derek’s lips turned down at the corners. “Didn’t know then. She was a great girl.”

“She was,” Stiles agreed. “She was always nice to me.”

“You were at her funeral,” Derek said and Stiles nodded, remembering Derek sitting between Paige’s parents in a dark suit, his face frozen in one of pain. “I still miss her.”

Stiles’ hand was still on Derek’s arm and he ran it comfortably up and squeezed his shoulder, at a loss for words. He glanced back at the pie. “More pie?”

Derek was quiet for a minute before nodding, his lips twisting into a smirk. “As long as I get the good pie.”

“I’ll fight you for it,” Stiles said.

After that night, something changed and the people in town noticed. Derek and Stiles went out of their way to pop into each other’s shops to call out a good morning. When Stiles ran out to pick up lunch one day, he slowed and after a moment ducked into Savory Goods to hunt down Derek to see if he wanted anything. Derek surprised him with pizza after closing a few nights later. 

No one said anything directly to them, but they both could hear the whispers and they laughed them off. “Wonder if the betting pool has changed at all? Since we don’t seem determined to put each other out of business or kill each other anymore.” 

Stiles growled playfully. “I don’t know, I might kill you if you keep hogging all the apple pie.”

“I’m your official taste tester!” Derek argued, offering up his own dish of mini barbecue pork pot pie for Stiles to sample.

“My dad would love this!” Stiles moaned around a bite and Derek pushed a styrofoam container towards him.

“Already thought of him. You have dinner with him tomorrow, right?” 

“Yeah.” Stiles opened the container and found two perfect unbaked pot pies. 

“375 for about forty minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes,” Derek told him. 

“You are a god,” Stiles told him, catching a grin and the pink ears as Derek ducked his head.

The pot pies were a hit for dinner with his dad but led to a lot of questions about Derek and what was going on between the two of them. “I think we’re finally becoming friends,” Stiles told his father who gave him a strange look but nodded and took another bite of pie.

They ate in silence for a couple of minutes before Stiles asked the question that had been bugging him since the night Derek and he started really talking. “Dad, whatever happened with the Paige Krasikeva case?”

His father shook his head, frowning, but didn’t seem surprised by the question. Stiles figured he saw it coming as soon as Derek and Stiles started being friendly. He was known for his curiosity after all. “There wasn’t a lot of evidence at the scene. It was a pretty cut and dry stabbing. The murder weapon was never found, no motive, no suspect.”

“Can I see the file?” Stiles asked, not getting his hopes up but his father shrugged and he knew that the next dinner he’d be able to look it over. He didn’t have any misconceptions that he’d find something the cops didn’t, but he could try.

Tuesday night, Stiles was sitting in the front of the shop decorating some cookies while two cakes and three dozen cupcakes were baking when he saw someone walk past the windows. It was pretty late for random people to be out and about so he stood and crossed to the front door of the shop. He pressed his face to the window to try and see if he could spot the person and when he couldn’t, he carefully opened the door and stuck his head out. 

As soon as the bells jangled, he saw someone race away from the front of Derek’s shop, heels clicking on the sidewalk and Stiles stepped completely outside and caught a glimpse of blonde hair as the person ducked around the corner. He debated following but he was distracted by a glint of silver on the ground in front of the shop.

He knelt down to investigate and nearly fell over when the door to Derek’s shop flew open. “What the hell are you doing?” Stiles scooped up the object, a silver charm bracelet and held it out to him, watching his face pale. “Where did you get this?”

“Some woman was standing outside your shop. She must have dropped it,” Stiles told him. “She ran that way when I came out.” He looked down at the bracelet, eyes tracing a violin charm as well as a few others, something tugging at the back of his brain.

“It’s Paige’s,” Derek said, his fingers trembling as he reached out, hand hovering briefly before he yanked it back.

“I’m calling my dad,” Stiles said, already heading back to his shop for his phone, relieved he hadn’t taken the time to pull off his plastic gloves when he’d raced out of the shop. While he made the call, he deposited the bracelet into a plastic bag and sealed it before removing his gloves and throwing them away.

Derek had come over once he’d locked up Savory Goods, beating his father by a couple of minutes. Right behind his father were Derek’s parents who Stiles hadn’t seen in a couple of years since they’d left for a tour of the world. They pulled Derek out of the chair he’d been sitting in, a cup of coffee in his hands, and wrapped him up in a hug, both murmuring quietly to him and Stiles saw his shoulders shaking.

He wanted to offer comfort but didn’t know how. His father pulled him into his own hug and they settled back at the table. While they waited for the Hales to join them, he handed the bag to his father and explained finding it and how he’d had gloves on when he’d picked it up. His father commended him on his handling of evidence, even if it was mostly accidental.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hale, it’s so nice to see you again,” Stiles said when they’d finally released Derek and approached the table. He’d known Derek’s parents growing up, the both of them prominent citizens of Beacon Hills and Mrs. Hale served on the school board for many years.

“Stiles,” Mrs. Hale responded, bending to press a kiss to his cheek. “Please, call us Talia and Nathan. It’s so good to see you again; Derek tells me the two of you are getting along well now.”

Nathan held out a hand and Stiles shook it, uncertain what to say but Derek pulled out a chair for his mother and the five of them settled at the small round table. “Oh, coffee!” Stiles said, jumping to his feet. “Who wants what? Do you want some coffee cake? Or- shit!”

“I don’t think I want that,” Nathan said, grinning but it was lost on Stiles as he raced to the kitchen, opening the ovens and breathing out a sigh of relief that nothing had burnt while he’d been distracted.

He was placing everything on the large workstation when Derek came into the kitchen. He grabbed another set of pot holders and started pulling trays out and turning off the ovens which Stiles was thankful for because he still forgot to do that sometimes. Once everything was out, Stiles breathed out a sigh of relief. He had some time before he could start decorating.

“Thank you,” he told Derek. “Shouldn’t you be out there?”

“They’re playing catch up. Apparently our parents knew each other quite well.” He fiddled with the potholder in his hand. “Plus, I think I’m avoiding talking about it.”

“Hey, I got your back, dude,” Stiles said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Now, help me get coffee and goodies together for everyone.”

They worked in silence and Derek carried out the tray while Stiles held the door open. He noticed someone had slid two square tables together, providing a bit more space for the group of five. He eyed the two seats left open next to each other and then looked at his father who was in deep discussion with Talia while Nathan was looking around the shop.

Things remained quiet while they fixed their coffees and took pieces of coffee cake but soon the Sheriff was asking Derek about the bracelet and the person outside of the shop. “I was taking stock off the shelves to package up for the homeless shelter,” Derek explained. “I thought I saw movement outside the shop but with the lights on inside and the darkness outside, I couldn’t get a clear view. So, I went to check and found Stiles with the bracelet in his hand.”

“And you’ve identified it as Paige Krasikeva’s bracelet,” the Sheriff said. 

Derek nodded. “I gave her the violin charm for her sixteenth birthday,” he explained. “She got the globe from her parents when she got first chair in the International Youth Orchestra.” He shuddered and Stiles laid a hand on his arm, getting a grateful smile at the action. “She always wore it.”

The Sheriff opened the file folder he’d brought with him and flipped through. “There’s a note from the crime scene that the bracelet was missing. It led the investigator at the time to believe the killing was robbery related.” Stiles leaned over the table to look at the file and his father slapped the file closed and gave him a look that clearly said,  _ “Later.” _

“I remember them asking me about it,” Derek said, voice quiet as he gripped his coffee mug in both hands and glared at the hot liquid until Stiles expected it to start boiling.

He remembered Derek being a suspect at the time but being cleared because he’d been out of town with his parents for the night on a camping trip. He stared at the bracelet in the bag on the table and wondered where it had been for all these years and why it had reappeared. He also wondered about the woman. Who was she? Was she the one that had killed Paige?

“Derek, Stiles tells me that Kate Argent is back in town and has been bothering you.”

“Derek!” Talia said, her face paling and a hand going to her mouth. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I knew you'd react just like this,” he said with a huff. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” Nathan asked. “She stalked you for two years.”

“She, what?” Stiles asked, amazed he’d never heard about that. “But she was a teacher!” Derek ducked his head as Stiles’ dad knocked him upside the back of his head and Stiles muttered an apology.

“The restraining order lapsed a couple of years ago,” the Sheriff explained. “I’d be more than happy to renew it for you now; it shouldn’t take much to get the paperwork rolling.”

Derek looked at his parents and then over at Stiles. “Please,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. 

“So, there is a chance the woman Stiles saw was Kate, especially if she’s bothering you again. However, I will try to get some security camera footage to get a better look. You don’t have cameras installed do you, Derek?”

“No, sir, but I think I’ll look into it,” he responded.

“I’ll give you Danny’s number. He’s the best in security, cyber or otherwise,” Stiles told him, rising to get a pen and paper from behind the counter and scribbling down the number. When he returned to the table, he handed it to Derek who took it with a nod of gratitude. Stiles remained standing and returned his attention to his father. “She walked past my shop, so her face was probably caught on one of my cameras. I can have footage for you in a couple of minutes.” 

He left them out there and headed into his office, swiping his fingers over the keypad of the laptop connected to the security system. He found the cameras for the front of the store and went back and forth through the footage and found thirty seconds from each angle where the woman was visible. He saved those clips as well as a few minutes before and after, watching himself exit the bakery and head to Derek’s and his return with the bracelet in his hands.

When the data had downloaded to the thumb drive, he pulled it out and turned, stumbling when he found Derek standing behind him. “Was it her?”

“I don’t know, dude. It could be, but I didn’t study it for too long and other than the other day, I haven't seen her since high school,” Stiles told him, turning around and cuing the footage again. 

He felt Derek’s warmth against his back and the sudden intake of breath when the woman’s blurry face came into focus. “It’s her,” Derek affirmed and he dropped his forehead to Stiles’ shoulder. He didn’t know what to do for a minute, so he just stood there as still as possible and let Derek use him as he needed until he stood up and took a deep shuddering breath. “My parents want me to move back out to the house, but I have to bake and I don’t want to leave my place.” His voice was almost whining and Stiles turned to grip his bicep.

“I have baking to do as well and you can stay in the apartment above my shop. I don’t really use it but there’s a futon up there. It might be a little dusty but no one really knows about it,” Stiles told him. “Or you can come to mine.”

“I don’t want to leave my shop,” Derek said firmly. “What if she does something to it?”

“There is so much I don’t know,” he said in response and Derek nodded. “Alright, then I’m staying with you. She seems to disappear whenever I’m around. I’ll set timers and run back and forth between shops.” He glanced towards the wall of the kitchen that was shared with Derek’s shop. “Too bad we can’t knock down a wall.”

“Yeah, that will really feed the rumor mill,” Derek teased, taking a couple of steps towards the front of the shop, stopping before he reached for the door and turning to face Stiles. “Thank you. You don’t have to do this, but I’m really glad you are.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Stiles told him. “You’d do the same for me.”

Derek tilted his head and studied him before smiling. “Yeah, I guess I would.”

Their parents gave them considering looks when they explained the plan and although the Sheriff wasn’t happy about it, he just called one of his deputies to set up regular drive-bys for the remainder of the night and start the paperwork to renew the restraining order. He pulled Stiles aside before he left. “Be careful. You don’t know how dangerous this woman is. This might be a small town but not all stories get told,” he warned and Stiles nodded, glancing over to see Derek caught in another hug with his parents.

It took another twenty minutes before the parents had left and Stiles locked the front door of the shop. “We should probably move between the back doors,” he explained. “Less people know about them and the gates at each end of the alley are a deterrent.”

“Makes sense,” Derek said, eying the cupcakes and cakes on the counter. “Do you want to bring those next door to decorate? I can clear off one of my workstations.”

The cupcakes were just simple icing but the cakes were a bit more complicated. He chewed his lip. “Can you wait while I make icing for the cupcakes and I can decorate those over there and then maybe you can come here while I work on the cakes?”

“We’ll figure something out,” Derek said, picking up a tray of the cupcakes and heading out the back door.

They fell into a comfortable pattern for the next few nights and Stiles found himself using the futon in Derek’s apartment to grab a couple hours of sleep more often than not before returning to the bakery. He ran home one morning to get some clothes and ended up packing a bag he threw at Derek when he saw him, earning a laugh before he headed inside and was met by Liam standing behind the counter, arms crossed over his chest and eyes narrowed.

“Shacking up with the competition?” he asked, face and voice serious before it gave way to laughter.

“Fuck off,” he said as the bells over the door jangled and Stiles looked over his shoulder to see Kate Argent come inside, a sly smile on her face. 

Stiles did a quick mental measurement of the distance between where Kate was standing and Derek’s shop. “Call my father and tell him trouble just walked in,” Stiles hissed at Liam and took his place behind the counter, plastering a smile on his face. “Welcome to Sweet Magic Bakery. How can I help you today?” 

Kate looked startled by the friendly greeting but recovered quickly and approached the counter. “Oh my God, little Stiles Stilinski, is that you?” she cooed and reached across the counter and Stiles just barely managed to escape a cheek pinch. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Stiles decided playing dumb would probably be his best course of action. “Sorry, can’t say you look familiar. Are you a friend of my parents?”

She narrowed her eyes at him and he bit back a smirk. “Kate Argent. I substituted for your chemistry class in high school.”

Stiles shook his head. “Sorry. I hated chemistry so I’ve pretty much blocked out all memory of that time, but Argent...any relation to Allison? How is she anyway? I haven’t talked to her since the last time she visited from France. That had to have been two or three years ago now. I wonder if she still talks to Isaac, man I haven’t seen that kid in ages. Although, I guess I can’t really call him a kid now. Hope he’s doing good, you know? He had such a rough time as a kid.” He finally paused his rambling when the bells above the door jangled and he saw Deputy Jordan Parrish walk through the door, hands hooked in his utility belt.

“Good morning, Jordan!” Stiles called out and Kate glanced over her shoulder with a scowl.

He had to lean back when Kate leaned over the counter into his space and hissed, “You can tell your boyfriend he isn’t as clever as he thinks he is.”

Never having been too good at self-preservation. “Sure will, as soon as you tell me who my boyfriend is. Last time I checked I was eternally single.”

“You’re not as funny as you think you are,” Kate hissed again and turned on her heel to storm out of the store just as Jordan was close enough to touch.

“You let her get away,” Stiles said.

“Tara’s out there,” Jordan said just as shouting started outside and Stiles spotted Kate pressed up against the glass of the front door, Deputy Graeme grinning at them all from over her shoulder; no one messed with the Sheriff’s kid or his friends.

As soon as the cruiser was gone, Derek showed up demanding to know what had happened. Stiles pulled him into the back and up the stairs, pushing him down on the futon and settling next to him. Quickly, he went over what had happened and then he gave Derek a serious look. “I’ve been patient, but I think I need to know what happened between the two of you. The last thing I knew she was a substitute teacher at our high school and next thing I know I find out she’s been stalking you.”

Derek leaned forward, elbows on his knees and hands buried in his hair. “I met her when she subbed for Harris’ class. She kept asking me to stay after class and tell her where we were in the book. I didn’t think anything of it, but then she started showing up at basketball practice. She always sat hidden away in a corner, but Paige noticed her and told me.”

“Did you say anything to Kate? To your parents?” Stiles asked.

Derek shook his head. “I just figured she liked basketball, ya know? A couple of weeks later, Paige was killed and I wasn’t thinking about much of anything anymore.”

Stiles rubbed a hand over Derek’s back, remembering the way Derek had looked in the days following Paige’s death and hating that he was basically reliving it all. “A few weeks passed and Kate started showing up at practice again. Then I started running into her around town. They could all have been coincidental and after awhile I was starting to think maybe it was fate.”

“You thought it was fate or she was telling you that it was,” Stiles said, beginning to get a pretty good picture of what had happened.

Derek looked sheepish. “She was nice to me,” he said defensively.

“I’m sure she was, but she was an adult and you were what? Sixteen? Didn’t you graduate early?” Derek nodded. 

“I know it was wrong, now, but back then I was a hormonal teenager dealing with the loss of his first serious girlfriend while questioning his sexuality and…” he trailed off.

“You were a mess ripe for the picking of a cougar with ephebophilic tendencies,” Stiles said.

“You and your big words,” Derek teased.

“Like you weren’t valedictorian,” Stiles argued. “So, what led to the restraining order?”

“She tried to set my house on fire with my family inside,” he answered, voice flat.

Stiles blinked at him in shock. “How did I never hear about this?”

“She was caught before the fire burned more than a scorch mark on the front porch and my mother made a deal with her and her family not to press charges if she never contacted me again,” Derek explained. “None of us wanted the attention.”

“I get that, but she’s back now. She broke the deal,” Stiles said. “You can press charges.”

“The statute of limitations is fuzzy because the fire was caught early; it's considered a misdemeanor. If there’d been death or injury we still could. I’d rather have my family than press charges.”

“Obviously,” Stiles said, looking thoughtful. “How did she get Paige’s bracelet?”

Derek chewed his lip and looked up at Stiles. “I’m afraid to think about it too much because the most obvious way means she’s even more dangerous than we ever expected.”

There was a knock on the door at the bottom of the stairs before Stiles could even respond and his father was climbing them before anything was said. “You alright, son?” he asked when he reached the top.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Stiles said, smiling.

“I was talking to Derek,” the Sheriff said, smiling.

“I didn’t even see she was being put into the cruiser,” Derek responded.

“She’ll be spending at least the rest of the day in holding, but she’ll probably be out on bail soon. Can you tell me what is going on? Your parents mentioned a history of stalking and people don’t normally get restraining orders willy-nilly.”

Derek explained everything to the Sheriff that he’d told Stiles, as well as their theory about the bracelet, and the more he talked, the stormier the man’s expression became. When Derek was done talking, the Sheriff cleared his throat. “I’m guessing getting you to take a vacation for a few days is out of the question.”

“Happy Days is this weekend. There’s the competition,” Derek said. “I know it’s silly, but I was looking forward to kicking your son’s butt in it.”

“Hey!” Stiles objected and they all shared a laugh before turning serious again. “Derek, your safety is more important than a competition.”

“You just say that because you’re afraid to lose.” His tone was teasing but Stiles could see the nerves beneath the surface. “I really don’t want to have to close the bakery and I couldn’t leave my employees knowing they might be at risk.”

“You only have like two,” Stiles pointed out and Derek glared. “What I’m saying is, what if we helped. Like, we could sell your stuff out of my shop. You could spend the rest of the time Kate’s in holding to bake a surplus and then we can put it out in a special section of Sweet Magic and you could go stay with your parents or visit your sisters.”

“You would do that?” Derek asked and Stiles nodded. “I can’t. I mean…I appreciate it, but I can’t keep hiding.”

The Sheriff who had been quiet until that point put a hand on Derek’s shoulder. “I understand. You’re stubborn, just like my son. I’ll continue to have a cruiser drive by and I would feel a lot better if you would at least sleep somewhere else.” He looked around the empty space. “I’m sure the futon is comfortable.”

“You really need more furniture,” Derek said. 

“Hey, I don’t live here. I just sleep here occasionally,” he argued but shrugged. “You can come stay at my house. I don’t have anything major to prep for tomorrow so I don’t need to stay the night.”

Once everything was arranged, Stiles’ dad headed to the station and left them to try and go about business as normal. When Stiles made it back to his shop, Mason offered to go next door and help Derek out while Stiles and Liam kept things at Sweet Magic running. As the day wore on, a few people heard about the arrest and asked but ‘no comment’ was the response of the day. It got to the point that Liam joked about nicknaming the chocolate croissants ‘no comment’sants’. 

Stiles was exhausted by the time he turned off the open sign. He’d managed to do the normal overnight prep during the evening hours and had everything ready to go the next morning. After that, he went to the backdoor of Savory Goods and rang the bell. Derek opened the door a moment later.

“What if I’d been Kate?” Stiles exclaimed and Derek pointed to the camera above the door. 

“Your friend Danny came by today, apparently a call from the Sheriff results in rush service. Thank your dad for me.” Derek led him into the backroom. “I have everything ready for tomorrow. Thank you for loaning me Mason. He was so much help.”

“No problem. He said he really liked it, especially when you gave him two loaves of spinach artichoke bread to take home,” Stiles told him, helping wipe down the counters while Derek put away the cash drawer in the safe in his office. 

As they were leaving the building, Stiles' phone went off and he saw a text from his father. “Kate was just released. We should probably get you out of here before she figures out where you’re staying tonight.”

Derek nodded. They arrived at the parking lot and Derek started to head towards his Camaro before changing direction and stopping next to Stiles’ Jeep. “She’ll think I’m here if she sees my car,” he said.

“Good thinking.”

They stopped for carryout from the Thai place in town before heading to Stiles’ house. They didn’t talk about it but they both kept looking in the mirrors and when they got to the house, Stiles pulled all the way up the driveway so the Jeep was hidden by the house. Once inside, he gave Derek a tour. 

“You can take my bed and I’ll take the couch,” he said once they were back in the kitchen. 

“I can sleep on the couch,” Derek argued, opening the bag and inhaling deeply. “This smells so good,” he moaned.

“Plates or forks?” Stiles asked and Derek reached into the bag pulling out plastic forks with a grin. “Awesome, no clean up!” He grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and they headed into the living room.

Stiles turned on the television, flipping channels until he found a rerun of  _ Buffy the Vampire Slayer. _ They ate in relative silence until the containers and their bottles were empty. 

Stiles jumped up and got rid of the trash. “Want another beer?” he called from the kitchen.

“No thanks,” Derek responded. 

Stiles came back into the room with two bottles of water to find Derek staring intently at his phone. Looking over his shoulder, he recognized security footage of Savory Goods. The black and white images flipped from the front of the shop to the public area, the backroom, Derek’s apartment and the alley. Derek jumped when Stiles put a hand on his shoulder.

“Anything happening?” 

Derek shook his head. “Just a bad vibe. Probably paranoid,” he said, turning off the screen and pocketing the phone. 

“Did you want to get some sleep?” Stiles asked. 

“Don’t think I can sleep, but you can go to bed and I’ll watch more television if that’s alright with you,” he said, rubbing his hands over his jean-clad thighs.

“Except you’re taking the bed and I’m taking the couch, so technically you’re sitting on my bed,” Stiles pointed out.

“Just go to bed,” Derek said. Stiles dropped down next to him on the couch. “What are you doing?”

“What you said. Going to bed,” Stiles said. 

“I’m shocked your parents didn’t murder you as a child,” Derek said, standing up and picking Stiles up, throwing him across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, locking his limbs in place with his arm as he made his way through the house and dropped Stiles onto his bed. 

Stiles spluttered, his limbs flailing as he tried to sit up and Derek couldn’t help it, he started laughing until he couldn’t stand anymore and fell onto the bed next to Stiles, face buried in the blankets. His laughter cut off when Stiles clambered onto his back, shoving his face further into the bed, crowing with triumph that cut off when Derek planted both hands on the bed and forced himself up onto his knees, throwing Stiles backwards to land on the floor with a thud.

“I’m sorry!” Derek said, flipping over and jumping up off the bed. He held a hand out to Stiles but he was laughing too hard to take it and Derek slumped to the ground, leaning back against the bed chuckling with a hand over his face.

Once they’d both calmed down, Stiles pushed himself up on his elbows and grinned at Derek. “Feel better?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” he responded. “I never expected you to be like this.”

“Like what? Should I be offended?”

“Probably,” Derek teased. “You were...kind of a spaz in high school.”

“I’m still a spaz,” Stiles said with a shrug. “Some things never change.”

Derek shook his head. “No. You’re less...I don’t know how to say it without sounding like a total jerk.”

“‘Cause ‘spaz’ was so nice?” Stiles teased. “I get it. I’ve mellowed a bit with age, like a fine wine.”

“Or moldy cheese,” Derek countered, laughing when Stiles sat up and started swatting him on the head with a magazine that had been peeking out from under the bed.

They wrestled over the magazine for a few minutes until Derek managed to tear it out of Stiles’ hands, jumping to his feet and holding it over his head in victory. Stiles started to scramble to his feet, freezing when he realized what the magazine Derek was holding actually was. Swallowing hard, he reached for the magazine, his hands shaking.

“Give it back.”

“Never! It’s mine!” Derek shouted, waving the magazine a bit and freezing when he looked up at it. He lowered his hands and flipped through the pages of naked men for a moment before looking up at Stiles with wide eyes. “You’re gay?”

“Bisexual, actually,” Stiles corrected and took advantage of Derek’s stunned state to steal the magazine back and throw it under the bed. “I’m sorry if my choice of pornography offends you.”

Derek raised an eyebrow and glanced to where the magazine was still sticking out a bit. He smirked at Stiles. “Actually, I was thinking of taking it back to the couch with me.”

“Why are you going to read my porn in my bed?”

Derek huffed a laugh. “You. Bed.” He pointed from him to the piece of furniture. “Me. Couch.”

“You. Dumbass.” Stiles mocked before letting out a deep breath. “Fine, look, we’ll just share the bed. It’s big enough for both of us and I am starting to get tired and don’t want to argue and my couch is way too small for you to sleep comfortably on.”

“Fine,” Derek said, grabbing his bag from where Stiles had dumped it earlier. “First dibs on the bathroom.”

Like every cheesy romance story that included the “there was only one bed” trope, Stiles woke to a line of heat at his back, as well as something nudging him. Covering his face with a hand and ignoring his own personal morning predicament, he wiggled to try and get out of the arm that was draped over him which only led to the arm tightening around him and a face nuzzling into the back of his neck.

“No, no, no,” Stiles muttered to himself, he was not going to allow himself to enjoy this only to have Derek wake up horrified at what he was doing. “Dude, gotta pee,” he hissed, pushing at the arm.

“Don’t call me ‘dude’,” Derek muttered before rolling over and facing the other side of the bed, a soft snore escaping him before Stiles was even on his feet.

He paused in the doorway and looked at the way Derek’s hair fell over his forehead, his fingers itching to reach out and brush it away. He swallowed hard and hurried into the bathroom before he gave into his impulses. 

Derek was sitting up on the edge of the bed, staring down at his phone and frowning. “Need to get going. Have to open up soon.”

“Let me throw on some clothes. You can use the shower if you want,” he offered and Derek nodded and walked past him, pausing in the doorway. 

“Thanks.”

“It’s a shower, dude,” Stiles said, grinning as he pulled out one of the many Sweet Magic shirts he had in his dresser.

“Not for that, for everything. You didn’t have to let me stay here,” he said and Stiles turned to gape at him. “You’re a really good friend.”

“We’ve got a lot of years to make up for,” Stiles told him. “Now, go so we can get to our respective bakeries and make our masterpieces for the competition tomorrow.”

“Can’t believe it’s tomorrow already,” Derek commented before leaving the room and Stiles had to agree.

The day went quickly for Stiles but he made sure to duck over to Savory Goods to check on Derek at lunchtime, enjoying one of the pork pies he’d been working on. “Think I like this even better than the barbecue one,” he told him and Derek nodded.

“I think this might be my entry for tomorrow, but it’s like it’s missing something and I can’t put my finger on it,” Derek said, taking another bite and frowning around the fork.

Stiles shrugged. “Well, you can feel free to make them for me anytime.”

“I’ll remember that,” Derek said, leaving to head back to his own shop. Stiles watched him go with a smile on his face, flipping off Liam when he made kissy faces at him.

When he didn’t have a customer for over an hour, Stiles decided to close up early and concentrate on making caramel apple pies, hoping that he would finally be satisfied with one to enter. He’d tried five or six variations of the first recipe but it still wasn’t quite right. He was getting ready to put two more in the oven when he heard the sound of glass breaking and then an alarm blaring from next door.

He didn’t even register dropping the pie plates as he raced for the back door of the shop and yanked it open in time for another loud sound and he choked on the thick black smoke that was filling the alley. He turned toward Derek’s shop in time to see him stumble out the back door into the alley, coughing and throwing his hands around blindly in front of him. 

“Derek!” Stile shouted, reaching him just in time to be knocked to ground by the sudden weight of an unconscious Derek. “Shit. Fuck. Damn,” he muttered, grabbing his phone out of his back pocket with one hand while he checked Derek’s pulse with the other, relieved to find it strong and steady. 

“911. What is your emergency?” 

“There’s a fire at Savory Goods Bakery. One injury.”

“Alright, sir, is there anyone inside the bakery?”

Stiles groaned but went through all of the necessary questions and was relieved to hear sirens before he got to the end. “I hear the sirens. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” the woman said. “I hope your friend is alright.”

Stiles looked down at Derek. At his  _ friend. _ “I hope so, too,” he said, hanging up just as his father hit the gate to the alley and he realized he was going to have to open it.

He was trying to figure out how to put Derek down easily when a firefighter busted through the gate and he heard more breaking glass from the front of the building. Stiles’s father hurried to his side, a paramedic right behind him that tended to Derek. Putting an oxygen mask over Derek’s face, he waved over his partner that pushed through a stretcher. Once they had Derek on, the paramedics turned to Stiles and wrapped him in a shock blanket and checked him over.

“I’m fine. I’m fine. He was inside the kitchen. I was next door,” Stiles told them. "Just take care of him." 

“C’mon, son,” his father said, helping him out of the alley behind the stretcher. “Let’s let the firefighters do their job.” 

As Stiles came out of the alley he could see the flashing lights from around the corner in front of the shops and his heart broke at the din. The fire was a bad one. He knew that Derek’s shop and possibly his apartment were probably a lost cause. For all he knew, the fire had spread to his bakery and it was gone as well. “I left my ovens on,” Stiles said.

“Someone will take care of them,” his dad said, loading him into the back of the ambulance with Derek. “You’re going to get checked out and I’ll meet you at the hospital when I’m done here.”

“Danny,” Stiles and his father gave him an exasperated look. “No, Derek got surveillance from Danny. Contact him, he’ll probably be able to pull up tapes.”

“You think this wasn’t an accident?” Stiles saw the moment his father went from concerned parent to Sheriff.

“I heard glass breaking before the alarms went off,” he explained. “It was faint, but…”

“We’ll look into it,” the Sheriff assured him, stepping back when the paramedic moved to shut the door to the ambulance.

Derek woke up on the way to the hospital, trying to bolt upright on the stretcher in a panic, but Stiles reached out and pressed a hand gently to the middle of his chest. “Hey, man, it’s alright.” He stopped Derek from ripping off the oxygen mask and surprisingly the paramedic sat back and let Stiles handle the situation.

Derek’s eyes focused on Stiles’ face and his entire body relaxed back into the stretcher and he reached up and gripped the wrist Stiles had against his chest. “My bakery,” he gasped out. “It was Kate.”

“Fuck,” Stiles breathed out, not entirely surprised but did his level best to keep Derek calm as they pulled up to the hospital.

The first face he saw as the ambulance doors opened was Melissa McCall, his best friend’s mom and the closest thing to a mom he’d had since his own had passed away. Her face was pale but the color returned quickly when she laid eyes on Stiles and helped him out of the back. She led him to an exam room, allowing the rest of the crowd to check over Derek who started to panic as soon as Stiles was out of his line of sight.

“Melissa, I’m fine. Can I just stay with him, please?” he pleaded and she looked ready to argue. “Seriously. I’ve had enough injuries and shock to know the symptoms.”

Derek shouting heard from down the hall and the code grey called overhead was enough to convince her and she stood aside, gesturing towards the door. Stiles pressed a kiss to her cheek as he raced by and followed the security guards he saw running towards the other side of the ER, fully expecting to see Derek going insane and doing everything in his power to get off that stretcher and back to his bakery.

What he didn’t expect when he burst through the doors was for a Code Silver to be called and to see Kate Argent standing at the end of Derek’s stretcher with a gun pointed at him. He skidded to a stop and opened his mouth, but the panicked look on Derek’s face was enough to stop him and he reached into his pocket, dialing speed dial number one without looking and hoping he turned the speaker on as he moved to get as close to the situation as he could without endangering himself or Derek even more.

“Now, Miss,” one of the security guards started, voice calm and hand on the taser in his utility belt, stepping back when she whirled around and fixed the gun on him. 

Stiles’ nose filled with the acrid scent of smoke and gasoline and he knew that would be enough to get Kate at least taken in for the fire at Savory Goods, but there was more, so much more, that he knew she was responsible for. Stiles knew they would need her to start talking and he hoped that for once in his life all the movies he watched wouldn’t steer him wrong.

“Kate,” he said, voice soft and her head turned to him, but the gun stayed trained on the security guard. “Why are you doing this?” He figured straight and to the point was the only way to go.

“Why?” she asked, laughing in a hollow way that sent a chill down his spine. He’d expected her to sound insane but she sounded completely in control which made her even more terrifying. “Do you know who I am?”

“Kate Argent,” Stiles responded, trying to keep his voice calm but loud enough to hopefully be heard through the phone in his pocket which was definitely on speaker because he heard his father’s voice before it cut off quickly. “My friend Allison’s aunt and a substitute when I was in high school.”

“I knew you remembered me,” she said, her voice turning almost playful and she waved the gun around. Stiles saw the nurses trying to move people out of the ER behind her and hoped he could keep her distracted enough. “It’s not nice to lie to people.”

“Because you never lie, Kate?” Derek asked, his voice still gruff from smoke inhalation and she turned back towards him, a sneer on her face. “You never pretend to be something that you’re not?”

“I have never lied to  _ you _ ,” she said to Derek. 

Stiles watched Derek’s face, recognizing the thoughtfulness on it and had a feeling he knew where he was going with this and pulled his phone out of his pocket to double check and he saw his dad’s name on the screen. He looked up to see Kate approaching Derek and fought the urge to jump between him when he saw his adam’s apple jump before he licked his lips.

“Do you remember Paige?” he asked. “You said when she was killed that you hardly knew her even though she was in the biology class you subbed for.”

“I don’t remember all the students in the classes I sub for, sweetie,” she said and Stiles sneered at the term of endearment.

“But you remembered me. And Stiles,” Derek pointed out. 

“Well, some people are more memorable,” she said with a shrug, looking over her shoulder at Stiles, her eyes immediately going to his phone. She casually turned to aim the gun at him. “Get rid of it.”

Stiles had noticed his father in the background as she turned so he tossed the phone to the side watching it land on a stretcher near Derek’s. He held his hands up. “Sorry, just trying to beat a level on Angry Birds. You know how it is.”

“Right,” Kate said, before turning her attention back to Derek when he started coughing, doubling over on the stretcher. “Derek, sweetie,” she said, approaching him. She glared at the medical staff standing around. “Someone help him.”

“You’ll have to step back,” Dr. Hewitt, Mason’s father, said, approaching slowly. He had his hands raised and Kate hesitated before stepping back, aiming the gun at him as he moved to Derek’s side, adjusting the oxygen mask and leaning close to Derek’s ear.

“Kate,” Stiles called, trying to drag her attention away from Derek, not knowing what Dr. Hewitt was up to, but knowing it had to be something. She turned to him. “Did you know Paige?”

“Of course I knew that spoiled little brat!” she snapped. “Thought she could be with Derek, be good enough for him when all she really cared about was her cello.”

“That’s not true,” Derek said, his voice slightly steadier but muffled by the oxygen mask. Stiles noticed there was steam going through the mask and he had vague memories of Scott and asthma treatments. “She cared about me. She  _ loved  _ me.”

Kate laughed that hollow laugh again. “Loved you? She didn’t love you.  _ I _ loved you! She was going to leave you behind to play that damn cello and you were so sad, but I fixed it. I fixed it so she couldn’t leave you and I made sure to pick up the pieces.” She drew closer to the bed and Stiles could see Derek’s trembling from where he was standing.

“How did you ‘fix’ it?” Stiles asked, drawing her attention away again as he saw his father moving closer and another deputy coming in through another door near the rear of the area. 

“I got rid of her so he wouldn’t be waiting for her to return,” she sneered. “Stupid girl. Fell for a fake note and met me at the school after hours, thinking it was Derek. It was easy enough to take her by surprise.”

“So, instead of waiting for her to leave, you killed her so Derek was left alone anyway?” Stiles asked, honestly trying to follow her logic despite missing the crazy gene she seemed to have in spades. 

“If she’d just left, he would’ve waited for her. Pined for her. Grieving has an end date, especially for someone as worthless as that little-”

Stiles wasn’t sure what happened at first. Kate’s body stiffened and she fell to the ground, the gun falling out of her hand. Looking from the gun to where Kate had been standing, he gaped at Melissa holding a taser in her hand. “Villains never do shut up,” she said, winking at Stiles and then getting out of the way when Stiles’ dad and the deputies rushed forward.

Stiles moved around them to Derek’s side. Dr. Hewitt was still checking him over and he waited until he allowed him to approach. “Your numbers are looking better but we’ll keep you overnight and on the oxygen for a little longer.”

Derek nodded, tears shining in his eyes as the doctor walked away. Stiles put his hand on Derek’s. “Hey, you’re gonna be okay,” he said, forcing cheerfulness into his voice.

“She really killed Paige. Because of me,” he said, voice barely audible over the hiss of the albuterol still flowing through the mask.

“No,” Stiles told him, voice firm. “She is the only person responsible for any of her actions. Not you.” Derek shook his head and Stiles reached up to grab his chin, forcing him to stop moving and look him in the eyes. “None of this is your fault.”

The silence dragged between them and Stiles thought if this were a movie and there weren’t medical equipment in the way, they would’ve kissed. Derek’s eyes studied his face and finally he nodded and Stiles let go, yelping when his father pulled him into a tight hug. 

“You need to learn to shut up,” he said and Stiles let out a wet laugh. 

“Some things can’t be learned,” he said, laughing when his father smacked him upside the head.

“I’ll need a statement from both of you,” the Sheriff told Stiles and Derek. “It can wait until tomorrow. You both need rest.”

“No rest for me, daddio. I’ve got baking to do.” He assumed he’d have to do it back at his place but first he’d have to check out how badly the bakeries were damaged. He turned his attention back to Derek when he whimpered.

“I won’t be able to enter,” he said, frowning behind the mask. 

“I think the town will understand,” Stiles told him and the Sheriff nodded in agreement.

“Oh, they recovered this from the scene,” he said to Derek. “I’m assuming it’s yours.” He handed over a cell phone and Stiles caught the lock screen, a selfie Stiles had forced Derek to take of the two of them one night when they’d managed to explode a bag of flour all over themselves. 

Derek’s ears were pink as he took it and murmured his thanks. A nurse approached and switched out the maks Derek was wearing for one that didn’t administer medication. “You get some rest, okay? I’ll be up for a while, so if you get lonely, just text,” he told him and Derek nodded, fiddling with his phone and looking bereft.

A commotion at the entrance drew their attention as Talia and Nathan came charging into the emergency room shouting for Derek. The Sheriff went to head them off to calm them down before they got to Derek. “You’re in good hands,” Stiles told him. “Call me tomorrow if you need a ride home.”

“If I have a home,” Derek muttered.

“You know you do,” Stiles told him. “Either out at the preserve with your parents, the apartment above my shop or even my place.” Derek nodded and said thanks again just as Stiles was gently pushed out of the way by Talia.

He stood back and watched Derek’s parents fuss over him before heading out of the hospital. He saw Parrish driving away with Kate in the backseat having recovered from being tazed and screaming for Derek. He sincerely hoped she’d be put away for a long time. 

His dad collected him from where he’d collapsed in a chair out of the way of the commotion, startling him out of the light doze he’d fallen into. He gripped the back of his neck gently and guided him to his cruiser, settling him in the front seat. “So, your home or mine?”

Stiles snorted. “The bakeries.”

“Son…”

“Dad, I have to see,” he pleaded and his dad nodded.

It wasn’t a long drive and Stiles’ heart sank when he saw the DPW barricades at the end of the street; just how bad was the damage that they’d closed down the entire street. His heart quickened and his breath caught. He started to curl into himself when his father’s hand fell on his shoulder. “Happy Days starts tomorrow. They blocked the street off for the vendors to get set up.”

Climbing out of the car, he spotted Lydia near the middle of the street, her hair pulled back into a messy bun and her arms gesturing while people ran around her. His gaze fell past her on the police tape surrounding not only the front of Savory Goods, but Sweet Magic as well. “Have you seen the damage?”

“It’s not great,” his father admitted. “You'll both be closed, but you should be alright with a small amount of work.” He sighed. “Derek better have good insurance."

Stiles’ heart sank as he made his way to the front door of Sweet Magic. He pulled his keys out and let himself inside, the scent of smoke was less cloying inside but it was definitely still there. He flipped on the lights and the front looked alright and he breathed out a sigh of relief before pushing through into the kitchen and stopping as he gazed through a still dripping and smoking hole that led into Derek’s kitchen.

He kept walking, stepping carefully around the debris and into Savory Goods, tears springing to his eyes at the damage displayed before him. This was more than just a regular fire. “What happened?” 

“Near as we can tell, and we’ll know more after we talk to Derek, Kate threw a few molotov cocktails into the kitchen.” Breaking glass ran through his memory. “She must have had a chance to mess with the gas lines and the fire inspector said we’re lucky the entire block didn’t go up.”

“She could’ve killed him,” Stiles breathed out.

“She could’ve killed  _ you _ ,” his father amended and Stiles nodded. 

He made his way to the door that led into Derek’s office, breathing out a relieved breath when he saw the damage was mostly water from the firefighters. He went over to the shelves and ran his fingers along the cookbooks and then checked Derek’s desk. Picking up the notepad open on top, he noticed the recipes for Pork Pot Pies that Derek had been testing and the big gold star in the corner of the one the book was open to. Some of the page was smeared but Stiles could make out most of it and he knew that Derek had really wanted to enter the contest.

“Dad, can we get some stuff from next door and go home?” Stiles called and his father nodded. 

They worked together to move everything from Derek’s no longer functioning walk-ins, the heavy steel doors protecting the contents, to his own. He grabbed a few ingredients among the massive amounts of food and a few baking dishes. 

His father helped him carry everything to Stiles’ Jeep that was still parked behind the bakeries. After loading up, his father insisted on following home and didn’t leave until Stiles was settled in his kitchen, his mind already running so he didn’t even hear the door closing behind his father.

Several hours later, Stiles watched the sun coming up over the trees behind his house, a cup of coffee in his hand in a desperate attempt to stay awake after a night of no sleep. There was a knock at his door and he was surprised to find Liam and Mason standing on the porch, coffee and donuts in their hands. “They’re from Dunkin’ Donuts, but since every other bakery in town is closed," Liam said and Mason elbowed him, muttering under his breath stopping when Stiles burst out laughing.

“Thanks, guys.” He let them in and led them to the kitchen. They gaped at the surfaces that were covered with mini pies in aluminum tins. “You’re just in time to help me finish these, Liam. Mason, I need your help on the computer.”

They nodded and both got to work. Time was running short but soon the pies were finished and Stiles grinned at the small squares of cardstock that Mason handed to him. His phone went off just as they’d gotten the last of the pies boxed up and loaded into Liam’s mom’s minivan. 

_ Please come save me from my parents. _

Stiles grinned and grabbed two small boxes of the pies from Liam and hopped into his Jeep. “Take those to the bakery. My dad had a couple of deputies set up a table in front of the store. The box with the red heart drawn on top goes to Lydia for the contest.” The guys nodded and moved to follow the instructions while Stiles drove to the hospital.

Derek was waiting on a bench in front of the hospital, his mother fussing over him and he rose from the bench slowly when Stiles pulled up in front of them. He waved to his parents and muttered, “Floor it,” to Stiles as soon as the door was closed.

Laughing, Stiles did just that, reaching over and handing one of the boxes to Derek who ran his fingers over the top of the box. “My dad said Savory Goods is destroyed,” he whispered.

“It’s not good, dude,” Stiles admitted. “We’ll both be closed for a bit.” Derek’s head went up at that. “Our kitchens are one room now.”

“I’m so sorry. This is all-”

Stiles held up a hand. “We’ve been over this. Crazy bitch’s fault. Not yours.” He gestured to the box in Derek’s lap. “Besides, I had an idea to expand on the plan to have you working out of Sweet Magic for awhile.”

At the next stoplight, Stiles arched his back and reached into his pocket, digging out one of the business cards that Mason had made for them that morning and handing it over to Derek. As he continued to drive towards the bakeries, he watched Derek out of the corner of his eye. His face remained blank and Stiles began to panic and started to reach for the card again but Derek held it out and away, his own eyes still tracing it.

“Sweet and Savory Magic Goods?” he asked, turning to face Stiles. “Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale, Proprietors.”

“It can just be for the contest today, which our entry is in the box, or we can do joint renovations. Hire some more people.” He swallowed hard as Derek opened the box and lifted out a small pie, the top drizzled with caramel.

“What is this?” Derek sniffed at it, his brows drawing together.

“It’s a Caramel Apple Pork Pie,” Stiles told him. “I found the recipe you’d starred in your notebook and combined it with my chosen caramel apple pie recipe. Take a bite.”

Derek hesitated and Stiles crossed his fingers on the steering wheel as he pulled into the parking lot, thankful that the town hadn’t gotten too filled up with Happy Days attendees by that point. Derek’s teeth bit into the pie and he held his breath as Derek chewed. “It’s not bad,” he said. “Is this the kind of thing we’re going to sell?”

“We? You’re for it?” Stiles asked, excitedly, glad that he was parked as he beat out of a rhythm on the steering wheel and let out a happy screech, apologizing when Derek winced. “Sorry.”

“We’ll talk about it more later,” Derek told him, steeling his shoulders. “Let’s see what the damage is.”

Stiles nodded and followed Derek to Savory Goods. He reached out a hand, pressing it to the small of Derek’s back when he stumbled at his first view of the kitchen. There were tears on both of their faces as they stood there and after a couple of minutes, Stiles pulled Derek into a hug, pushing his face into his neck. 

“It’s going to be fine. Better than fine,” Stiles assured him. 

“I hate her,” Derek muttered and Stiles nodded, keeping him where he was until he’d calmed down. “Alright, you ready to sell some pies?”

Derek nodded. They changed into plain black shirts that Mason had picked up for them and went to join the others at the table in front of the bakeries. Stiles eyed the large plastic barrel on the edge of the table, pointing at it. “Lydia did it,” Mason said

As if summoned by magic, the lady in question appeared. “Every vendor has one on their table, voluntarily,” she explained. “Everyone wants to help get their favorite bakeries reopened.”

“Well, only one bakery is going to reopen,” Stiles said as Liam grabbed the box for the competition.

“Oh no, really?” she said, sounding genuinely distraught as she took the box. Her eyes fell on the business card taped to the top and a smile spread slowly across her face. “Oh, this is perfect,” she murmured just as the Sheriff approached. “Who had odds on them going into business together?”

The Sheriff smiled and pulled a small notebook out of his pocket. “Coach Finstock.”

“What?” Derek and Stiles both asked. “I thought the bet was we’d either kill each other or put each other out of business.”

“Oh, those were bets, too, just not the only ones,” the Sheriff told him, offering Lydia his arm. “Glad to see you up and about Derek. Feeling alright?”

“Throat’s still a bit sore but Dr. Hewitt says I’ll be just fine in a couple of days, as long as I get some rest.”

“Are you going to be moving back to the preserve then?”

“Don't have anywhere else to go,” he said, shrugging and wincing when Stiles smacked him in the arm.

“You can stay with me. You already have stuff there,” Stiles told him. “Who wants to live with their parents?”

“I’ll try not to take that personally,” his father said, shaking his head as he walked away with Lydia, calling out to Coach Finstock when they spotted him.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of people asking about the fire and Derek avoiding answering. Stiles kept an eye on him and when Mrs. Kravitz got a bit too ‘concerned,’ he asked Derek if he was ready to go get something to eat. He’d eagerly nodded and even grabbed Stiles’ hand dragging him away down the street towards the barbecue place that was selling barbecue parfaits, an ingenious mixture of mashed potatoes, pulled meat and barbecue sauce that he hoped his father never discovered.

They took their parfaits further down the street to where a trailer stage was set up and a group of high schoolers were living out their rock and roll dreams on the stage. Sitting down on one of the picnic tables set up, Derek left Stiles to go grab a couple of sodas from the Knights of Columbus booth before joining him. 

They ate in silence, listening to the band who weren’t half bad and Stiles wondered if they would be that one rare band that made it big or if they’d graduate and go their separate ways with nothing but fond memories. He noticed Derek watching him and he stretched his leg out to knock his toes gently against his ankle.

“Alright?”

Derek nodded and looked toward the stage for a minute. “I used to play piano.”

“Yeah?”

Another nod. “I haven’t played in years but I used to dream I’d be the next Elton John but Laura managed to destroy our piano during a party.” His ears turned pink and Stiles reached across the table to tweak one, laughing when Derek swatted at him. “I wanted to play basketball professionally but I got kicked off the team after Paige was killed because I kept skipping. When I went away to school, I was still so adrift that I ended up flunking out.”

“Not to interrupt what is probably the most words I’ve ever heard from you but is there a point to this besides beating yourself up?” Stiles asked.

“Everything good in my life didn’t last,” he said. “Now, the bakery is gone.”

“It’s not gone. It’s evolving. Like Pokemon! Yesterday it was Charmander and in as little time as we can manage, it’ll be Charmeleon, maybe even Charizard.” Derek stared at him and Stiles ducked his head.

“Maybe avoid the fire imagery,” Derek suggested before a laugh escaped his lips and the two of them burst into joined laughter, their heads close together as they finished their food. When they’d calmed down, Derek grew serious again. “It’s why I don’t really date anymore. Haven’t since Kate who doesn’t really count, I guess. Was afraid to find something good only to have it destroyed.”

“That risk is part of life,” Stiles told him. “I’ve had my heart broken a million different times and I’m still willing to keep trying until I find my forever.”

“Do you think everyone has a forever?” 

“I like to think so,” he responded. “My mom was my dad’s forever but she died but she was definitely it. Now, I think he’s looking for another forever.” He pointed his fork over Derek’s shoulder toward his father who was walking hand in hand with Melissa McCall. “Before my mom died, she said she hoped they would get together one day. I thought she was crazy.”

Derek turned back towards him, a soft smile on his face. “I knew your mom, ya know? She tutored me in reading.”

“Really? That’s cool. I remember her going to the library to help kids out. Sometimes, she’d take me with her and I’d sit in one of those big bean bag chairs in the children’s section and read for hours.” He chuckled. “I fell asleep there once and the cranky librarian got mad at me for drooling on the chair.”

“That woman hated me,” Derek told him. “Every time I returned a book, she’d spend twenty minutes looking it over just trying to find something to charge me a fine for. I had to pay five dollars because there was a pencil mark in one of the books!”

“I lost a lot of birthday money to that evil woman,” Stiles commiserated. He glanced at his watch as he scooped out the last of the parfait. “We should probably head back to the booth and start shutting down. See if we have enough to start tomorrow with or if we have a night of baking ahead of us.”

Derek agreed and they came back to the booth to find that the pies were all gone. Shaking their heads, they picked up the plastic jug and turned it in at the travel trailer acting as a festival headquarters and then made their way to bakeries. “My dad said the stairs are stable enough to go up if you want to grab anything. He said the damage is pretty much contained to the bottom floor.”

Derek shook his head. “I’ll make due with what you have at your place already.”

They stopped by the grocery store to pick up more supplies and then went back to Stiles’ house where they worked together in the kitchen, shoulders bumping and music playing softly in the background. Things went quicker with two of them working and they fell into bed around one in the morning. Derek was snoring before Stiles had even gotten completely under the covers and when he looked over at him, he couldn’t help but think that even after only two non-consecutive nights of sharing a bed with him, it was something he could get used to easily.

The rest of the festival went by quickly and at the end, Lydia presented them with a check for just over two thousand dollars to put towards renovations. They also had an offer from a local contractor for free debris removal. Lydia also informed them that the new interior of the bakery was already planned out and she’d be dropping off her designs in a few days.

Their heads were spinning and as they headed back to the house, Stiles realized that for the first time in he didn’t know how long, he had nothing to do. There was no baking to prepare for the next day, it was too late to start calling contractors and the insurance companies had already said they’d be in touch on Monday. He stared out the window at the moon hanging low in the sky and as they approached his neighborhood, he kept going straight instead of turning.

“Did we forget something?” Derek asked and Stiles shook his head, turning on his turn signal and taking a right towards the expressway. “Are you kidnapping me?”

“Are you complaining?” Stiles asked with a grin and Derek shook his head and leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes. “East or West?” he asked as he saw the signs for the approaching entrance ramps.

“West,” Derek responded and Stiles took that entrance. 

“So, piano and baseball, huh? How’d you end up baking?” he asked after they’d been driving for about fifteen minutes. 

Derek grinned and rolled his head so he could look at Stiles. “You talk too much. You always have.”

“You don’t talk enough,” Stiles countered and laughed at the look on Derek’s face. “Don’t act all offended, you know it’s true.” Derek pouted and Stiles laughed. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like you talking,” Derek said, his lips curling into an easy smile. “You know, in high school, I used to watch your debates.”

“No you didn’t.” Warmth spread through Stiles’ cheeks. 

“I did. I was late leaving practice one day and I heard your voice as I was passing the library and I peeked inside and saw you practicing with the debate team. You were debating salt versus pepper. It was hilarious, you were so into it.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Stiles asked.

“You hated me.”

“I never hated you. I just wanted to beat you because you thought you were so smart and so cool and so...perfect,” Stiles argued, eyes spotting a sign for an upcoming exit. “On or off?”

“On,” Derek responded. “I have never thought I was perfect. I just wanted to do well.” Stiles snorted. “I was struggling so much with the feelings I was having, figuring out my sexuality and then Paige dying and the whole Kate thing, it was easier to focus on school than anything else.”

“I get it. I did that when my mom died. My dad used to have to drag me away from my books.” Stiles chuckled. “He threw me over his shoulder once and dragged me out of the house for ice cream.” He glanced over at Derek. “So, you haven’t dated since Paige, so how did you figure out you were gay?”

“You’ll laugh or not believe me,” Derek said.

Stiles swatted him on the shoulder. “Hey, we’re friends. I’ll only laugh a little and I’ll always believe you.” He said the second part a bit more seriously than he’d intended but Derek needed to know that he could depend on him. 

“Paige was the first to suggest it, actually,” Derek said, his voice soft. “She wasn’t mean about it, but she noticed that I didn’t...get into kissing her.” He rubbed at his cheeks and stared at the side of the road. “Off,” he said when they saw a sign for another exit and Stiles signaled to leave the expressway.

Derek was quiet for a minute as Stiles wiggled a finger from left to right and pointed to the left where there were less lights. Once the car was surrounded by darkness, he cleared his throat. “At first, I got angry and she apologized. I didn’t talk to her for a couple of days but then something happened that made me think that she might have a point, so I went to talk to her about it.”

“What happened?” Stiles asked, glancing down at the gas gauge and pulling his phone out. “Search for the nearest gas station.”

Derek did as he asked, smiling at the picture of the two of them holding two of the pies from that day. “I met a guy that I couldn’t get out of my head. She asked me if I thought about kissing him and I hadn’t until she’d said that. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. We broke up, but she was still my best friend so we just let everyone believe we were still dating.” He handed the phone back to Stiles, allowing it to give him directions. “If I’d been honest with everyone, maybe she’d still be alive.”

“Not. Your. Fault.” Stiles was getting tired of repeating it, but he would definitely keep it up until Derek believed it. “Who was the guy? Anyone I know?”

A choking sound had him missing the next turn and he pulled off the road to turn his attention on Derek who looked like he was struggling. “Are you alright? Should I take you to the hospital?” Derek shook his head. “Are you sure?” He fiddled with the phone ready to GPS the nearest medical center, but Derek laid his hand over Stiles’.

“You do know him,” Derek said and Stiles looked up ready to ask, but he froze at the look Derek was giving him. “You know him better than anyone else probably does, as well as I hope to know him one day.”

“Me?” His voice cracked in a way it hadn’t since puberty and he cleared his throat. “Wait...me? Your sexual awakening was me? Skinny, little me?”

Derek sighed. “Brilliant, funny, terribly adorable you,” he corrected lifting his hand to put it over Stiles’ mouth when he opened it again. “And now, knowing that Harris pitted us against each other, I hate that bastard even more. We missed out on so much.”

Stiles pressed his lips together under Derek’s hand, hearing his words but struggling to believe them. Thinking over his life and where he was now and wondering how different it would have been had he and Derek gotten together in high school instead of competing against each other. He’d admitted a few years ago when he was in therapy for a short time in school while struggling to adjust to being away from home that he owed a lot of his successes in high school to their rivalry.

Would he even have the bakery? Would Derek have his? Would they have theirs? He reached up and pulled Derek’s hand down, tangling their fingers together. “So, let’s not miss out on anymore,” he said, smiling at Derek. 

He bit his lips as Derek’s expression turned thoughtful. He started to turn away but Derek’s hand on his chin stopped him. He started to question but was cut off by the brush of Derek’s lips against his own. It was quick and over before Stiles could respond and that was unacceptable. Before Derek could let go and pull away, Stiles leaned back in and returned the brief kiss ending it with a nip to his lower lip.

“So, keep driving or go home?” Stiles asked and Derek tilted his head to one side and then the other.

“Keep driving. We have nowhere to be,” he said and Stiles pulled back onto the road, his hand still clasped with Derek except when he had to shift gears. 

**Six Months Later**

Stiles slapped at the nightstand, cursing the alarm going off before relaxing back against the grumbling wall of warmth behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he grinned at Derek’s soft hair falling over his forehead and his squinted eyes. “Today’s the day,” he said and Derek blinked his eyes open completely as a smile spread across his face.

They scrambled out of bed, feet hitting the wood floor and raced each other for the bathroom. They brushed their teeth side by side and Stiles was thankful again that along with joining the bakeries into one building, they combined the apartments. When Stiles’ lease was up on his house, he’d moved into the apartment with Derek while they continued renovations. The double sinks in the bathroom were one of the best choices and he was glad Derek fought him on it.

He watched Derek spit out toothpaste and rinse with mouthwash before copying the movements and then leaning in for a quick kiss, stepping back when Derek tried to deepen it. “No time. Big day. Big, big day!” Stiles teased, dancing away from Derek’s grabby hands.

They dressed quickly and Stiles smoothed the black shirt over Derek’s chest, groping slightly as he adjusted the logo for Sweet and Savory Magic Goods over his right pec. His own shirt had the logo covering the entire front with the phrase “Nice Buns” on the back. Derek gave him a slap on the ass as he turned away. 

They were laughing as they went down the stairs that let out into the kitchen of the bakery and were greeted by Liam, Mason and the Mosses, as well as a couple other people they’d hired to man the new enterprise so they could spend more time with each other. “We ready for this?” Stiles asked.

“You better be,” Lydia said as he let herself into the kitchen, Stiles’ father right behind her. “The paper is here, ready for the ribbon cutting. Everyone outside.” 

She shooed everyone back out towards the front while Stiles and Derek stayed behind. Stiles looked around the kitchen, the new appliances and the shining surfaces hurting his eyes as he leaned into Derek when he wrapped his arms around him from behind.

It had been simultaneously the longest and fastest six months of his life. Hours upon hours spent working with contractors to redesign and rebuild the bakery followed by building a relationship with Derek. It wasn’t always easy and they’d broken up at least five times in the first two months before they sat down and had a long talk about what they both wanted out of their relationship. The important thing was that they wanted to be together.

At the same time, Kate’s trial was going on and she was eventually sent to Eichen House for the rest of her life. They had her locked in the basement in the cells for the criminally insane and he had held Derek for hours as he’d cried when it was all over. That was the night they’d decided to live together in the apartment above the bakery.

Now, they were ready to open their joint venture and Stiles was nervous. Both of their bakeries had been successful individually but would they do as well combined? They were selling the same things as well as the Caramel Apple Pork Pies. The town had been asking when they were going to open and as they moved to the front, Stiles could see that the street was crowded and if he squinted he could see the street was blocked off just like it had been for Happy Days.

“This is a big deal,” Stiles said, chuckling. “Why am I nervous?”

“Because it’s a big deal,” Derek told him and pressed a kiss to his temple before slipping through the front door and joining Lydia. Mason and Liam stood behind the counter double checking the cups and shining the glass of the display cases.

The entire thing was overwhelming, the applause deafening. Stiles stared at everyone, barely hearing the words coming from the mayor’s mouth until he felt Derek’s hand in his and noticed that Lydia was holding out the giant scissors for the ribbon cutting. He reached for them but Derek stopped him.

“Before we cut the ribbon, Stiles, there’s something I need to say.” He took both of Stiles’ hands in his and looked in his face. “We’ve known each other for over fifteen years and we’ve only been friends for seven months and more for a handful. Despite the newness of our relationship, I know that we fit the same way that our two bakeries fit together and I don’t want this bakery to be the only thing between the two of us.”

“Derek, what....” he started to ask, trailing off as Derek knelt in front of him and dug into his front pocket and producing a black ring with a line of blue running around it and held it up. “I want a marriage. A family. I want a lifetime with you. Stiles, will you marry me?”

Stiles fish mouthed a dozen times before licking his lips and clearing his throat and nodding. When Derek smiled, he managed to squeak out a “Yes. Definitely, yes!” 

Derek stood, sliding the ring onto his finger and pulled him into a deep kiss, the crowd around them cheering and Lydia poking them in the side with the ceremonial scissors while laughing, tears in her eyes. When they broke apart, Stiles held his hand up and cameras flashed, blinding him temporarily.

As the crowd died down, he heard his father’s voice raised over everyone else’s. “And that’s how you win the Hale-Stilinski Betting Pool!”

The kiss broke and Stiles laughed at his dad, somehow not surprised that his old man had bet on the two of them getting together. “Guess you’ve always had my dad’s approval,” he whispered to Derek.

“Never doubted it for a minute,” Derek whispered back, giving him one more kiss before turning his attention to the ribbon. 

Together, they cut the ribbon and opened the door to Sweet and Savory Magic Goods, greeting everyone as they walked past and entered the bakery. Stiles hugged more people than he thought their tiny town held and smiled for more pictures than he could count, but the only thing that mattered was that Derek was right by his side through it all.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'hi' on tumblr. I'm josjournal over there.


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